The whole group seems to feel the tension, yet only Xavier is confused on what could be causing it. Despite that Oliver is the first to back down as he simply enters the archway without a word once he realizes that there is nothing he can do.

“What was all that about?” Xavier asks.

“We’re not letting Anna alone with Oliver.” Lexi got out through clenched teeth.

“Oh right…” Xavier said awkwardly. “The whole next head of House Goldmancer thing.”

“I’m tempted to just go to another arch and be done with it.” Ajax offers. “There isn’t anything on this floor that worries me but the next floor and if any of you want to try the one after that I might need to intervene with the person under attack and I can’t keep an eye on him all the time.”

“No chance I am clearing the third floor.” Xavier said with a shake of his head.

As an hybrid fighter it did also mean that Xavier was more spread out so he couldn’t push a specific weakness of a monsters as much as a pure mage might in a good match-up.

“We can’t just leave him.” Anna said. “He would be able to use that against you.”

With that everyone entered the arch one by one with Anna going last. The second floor biome turned out to be a multitude of snowy and icy mountain peaks. The cold wasn’t as extreme as the heat from the last floor but the change in temperature got all of them to change their outfits in a hurry. Oliver is already standing there bundled up in a warmer set of clothes.

“Is this an elemental floor?” Xavier asks with a tinge of hope.

““No”” Both Ajax and Olvier respond at the same time. “It would be much colder if it was an elemental floor, this is just a cold biome.” Ajax continues.

“Don’t go near any cave entrances, most mountainous biomes have either a bear or humanoid inhabitants.” Oliver cautioned as all of them started to move from the entrance arch once they finished getting dressed.

“We’ve got incoming.” Ajax quickly turned and looked up to see a large eagle easily twice his size coming towards them from above. “It feels like a miniboss, I’ll handle the rest of the pack if one of you wants to get their fight out of the way.”

With that Ajax started to fire arrows towards the other three birds accompanying the mini-boss. As much as Xavier wanted to get his fight out of the way he knew that a flying enemy wasn’t a good match-up for him until his magic got a bit stronger so he let Anna take care of it.

The eagle quickly focused on Ajax after he let loose two arrows that easily put down two of its pack, unfortunately that left it unprepared for the large fireball Anna threw at it. The eagle did manage to react and a strong beat of its wings infused with mana conjured a small wind shield but that wasn’t enough to block the entire fireball.

Ajax used the explosion as a smoke cover to take out the last of the smaller eagles and put away his bow as he watched Anna engage with the eagle. For her part Anna didn’t let up on the attack and threw two fire lances one after the other. The first was the eagle managed to evade as it started its dive towards her but the second one connected and scorched its right wing leading it to crash into the ground and taking away its flight.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The eagle wasn’t ready to quit with just that as it fired a wind blade towards Anna that was powerful enough to have Ajax reaching for his mana. Anna was prepared however as she quickly put up an earthen wall. This is where the difference in levels shows however as despite using a good counter the wall still crumbled and a few of the rocks were blasted back towards Anna, fortunately she intercepted the attack far enough away that they didn’t reach all the way to her.

From there it was just a matter of a few more spells before the eagle burned away. As they all moved further into the floor it was actually Ajax who took out the next mini-boss as his required kill to clear the floor. The reason for this was that it was a polar fox that snuck dangerously close to them before any of them detected it and Ajax responded with his full power as he crushed its head with his hammer.

“I’ll take the bear.” Lexi volunteered once they found their first cave on the mountain and she was eager to get her required kill. What followed was a perfect example of why a mage with good versatility is a menace to deal with even when you are up in levels.

She utilized earth to trip up the bear and ice to slow its movement further, lightning to make approaching her even harder and finished by slowly bleeding it out with cuts from her wind attacks. Despite the relative safety of her attempt she did run through a full three quarters of her mana taking the mini-boss down.

From there they were attacked three more times by eagles and foxes but none of those attacks had a mini-boss with them so Ajax and Oliver were quick to take them out. Despite finding an arch to the next floor, and also the obelisk by a sheer stroke of luck they still needed one more mini-boss for Xavier before they were done.

“There is another fox here.” Ajax said as he picked up on the sound. “Feels like a mini-boss you want to take it?”

“Yeah, let's get this over with.” Xavier said as he pulled out his sword.

Ajax was quick to throw a water balloon filled with bright green paint at the fox. This did nothing to harm the creature however it severely hampered its stealth capabilities without taking anything away from Xavier should he defeat it in single combat.

Even with that advantage the fight wasn’t as straightforward as Lexi’s. Xavier had a bigger level gap to overcome and a melee fight didn’t allow him to put the mini-boss in quite the same bad spot that Lexi and Anna had put their respective opponents. His skill with the sword did shine through however as he managed to kill the boss with only a few mild scratches.

“Should we go back to the arch we saw?” Lexi asked once the fox was dead.

“I think I see an arch there that’s closer.” Ajax denied, this time he did check the arch and what he felt was a lot of water mana, it definitely wouldn’t have affected him enough but there was almost no chance for Anna or Lexi to clear another floor if the bosses they had to kill were submerged.

There was another bear guarding this arch but Ajax was having none of it so while Oliver distracted it with an opening ranged attack Ajax was quick to get close and slam his axe into its skull killing it quickly.

Ajax was ready for a confrontation about who would go through this arch first since with the monsters on the other side being close to level forty there was a good argument for him being the first one through.

“Come on already, just go, I want to get out of here.” Xavier made sure the argument didn’t take place by simply pushing Oliver through the arch and following behind him. The mage was surprised and simply didn’t have the physical stats to respond as he was pushed through the arch.

The three of them left on this floor shared a quick laugh at Xavier’s quick thinking and Oliver's surprised expression that they got to see for all of two seconds, before they followed them to the next floor.

“What the hell?” Ajax muttered as he took a look around at the new floor while also dismissing the prompt letting him know he gained an extra +1 to all stats. The odd layout of the floor did explain why he hadn’t recognized the primary mana that he felt in the arch.

“I think we just found a jeweler's wet dream.” Lexi joked as she also stared out the the spacious cavern made of crystals.

“Well this is where I leave you.” Xavier said while ignoring the deathly glare Oliver was sending him following his stunt of pushing him through the arch. “There is no way I am killing anything that is level forty and made of rock or crystal. I’ll see you all soon.”

Following that simple declaration he quickly made his way towards the arch they just entered the floor from and stepped through it to get back outside. The words however were very on point for Anna and Lexi as well, despite them not being in quite as bad a spot as Xavier who would have to get into melee range of his enemies crystal and rock monsters were known for their high defense and endurance which could make this a futile effort for both mages.

“How about you, do you think you can kill a miniboss?” Ajax asked.

“Of course she can, there has to be one or two golems here with an obvious core that they can destroy from range, even if it does take them an attempt or two we can just let them try a few times.” Oliver didn’t even give Anna and Lexi a chance to respond as he desperately tried to put on a supportive face, he couldn’t let them back down and exit the dungeon here and now.